Australian travel. Few questions

sc1985

Hi I am flying to Sydney in 3weeks.
I have 2 weeks in sydney. Then two weeks in Melbourne with family. I think I will spend about £1000. But I am not sure about how to go about this.
Credit Card? travel card? I'll take a few hundred cash.
I have natwest Classic credit card. Current balance £0 can go to £3000.
So if I used that in Australia to pay for things and also withdraw extra cash from ATMs is this as safe as the UK? Will I get charged a lot for withdrawing cash. I really do not know what the best way to do this is. Just looked on natwest at my card.

• Everyday spending – pay 4.9% p.a. on purchases for nine months from opening your account
• No annual fee – and a Typical 16.9% APR (variable)
• Withdraw cash – up to £300 or the foreign currency equivalent, from cash machines the world over. Charges may apply abroad

Or the other option is a travel card where I preload a credit card with cash and use it abroad.

Any help on this would be great!
Also if any of you have been to Australia and you have any advice let me know xx

dzug1

Your Natwest card will charge you 2.75% for spending abroad, which is not too bad - you would be hard put to get cash for that though it's not impossible.

But to use it to get cash from an ATM additionally incurs:

cash advance fee of 3%, min £3
overseas ATM charge - probably nil, though
interest at whatever rate applies to your card (it may not be the typical rate)

which makes it expensive.

One of the better prepaid cards may suit you

sc1985

Hey thanks!!!
Doesn't seem too bad with credit card.
I'm gonna go out later and ask about the prepaid cards in the post office and thomson and see what they say.

Cheers for advice

ferf1223

you can see here what the interest rates are for cash advances...it's not pretty and of course no interest free period - so you're going to start paying interest as soon as you withdraw the money.

http://www.natwest.com/downloads/personal/cc_Classic_summary.pdf

will you be in a position to pay off the credit card in full very quickly? if not, the interest on the cash advances will potentially be a killer.

Agree that a pre-paid card may be more suitable for you...though not sure about those that you mention. A Caxton Global Traveller card might be an option.

The Thomson card sounds terrible - 3% transaction fee plus a fee for each withdrawal?

I've skip that and have a look here:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-travel-money#prepaid

Maybe the Travelex Cash Passport would be better as you can buy in AUD.

sc1985

Hey!!

I've just transferred £500 into my sisters bank account. Which cost me £12 as international transfer. So she can sort me out with cash etc while I am over in Melbourne.

So I just need to sort out sydney. I can afford to pay off credit card straight away. If my current account wasnt a meastro I would use that.
So let me get this right

Every time I spend money (resturants, attactions etc) they charge 2.75%
So if I paid £100 it would cost me £102.75
If I withdraw from a ATM it would cost me either £3 or 3% which ever is more.

So for £500 spending using both I'm looking at about £15-30 in charges. (if I use the ATM less which larger amounts of course)

Then on top of that my normal credit card charges?? I'm still interest free for 3more months so that is not a huge issue. I pay it off when I use it anyway.



The bank told me I m best of using a credit card as the currency conversaion rate is so much better than a prepaid card. The Post office have a 0% on overseas travel.

dzug1

sc1985 wrote: »

Hey!!

I've just transferred £500 into my sisters bank account. Which cost me £12 as international transfer. So she can sort me out with cash etc while I am over in Melbourne.

So I just need to sort out sydney. I can afford to pay off credit card straight away. If my current account wasnt a meastro I would use that.
So let me get this right

Every time I spend money (resturants, attactions etc) they charge 2.75%
So if I paid £100 it would cost me £102.75
If I withdraw from a ATM it would cost me either £3 or 3% which ever is more.

So for £500 spending using both I'm looking at about £15-30 in charges. (if I use the ATM less which larger amounts of course)

Then on top of that my normal credit card charges?? I'm still interest free for 3more months so that is not a huge issue. I pay it off when I use it anyway.



The bank told me I m best of using a credit card as the currency conversaion rate is so much better than a prepaid card. The Post office have a 0% on overseas travel.

1 The ATM fee of 3% plus is on top of the 2.75% - not clear if you have taken that on board or not. And then there's the interest

2 Your 0% will not apply on cash advances and using a 0% on purchases card for cash advances is going to muck things up for sure. Your payments will go to paying off the purchases, not the cash.

3 It depends on the prepaid card - some are good, some are lousy. Caxton fx and fairfax are the two best. Travelex does oz dolls yes - but their charges are not that good.

Not sure what you mean by The Post office have a 0% on overseas travel
They have a credit card that has no charges on overseas purchases, yes - but anything else they charge for at mediocre rates. 0% commission does not mean no charges - they go into the exchange rate instead. Their advertising is disingenuous to say the least. 'Avoid getting stung by ATM fees' - get stung by us instead.....

However on £500 whatever you do is not going to make a vast amount of difference. Taking the cash might be the least bad of the options you are considering.